By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The northwest Missouri Area Health Education Center is celebrating 25 years of providing education to health care providers.
Director Becky Kendrick says there are different Health Education Centers all around the nation.
"Our northwest Missouri AHEC has been around since 1996, and really our whole mission is around increasing the number of health care providers serving in rural and underserved areas," Kendrick tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.
Kendrick says many of the nations Area Health Education Centers are funded through grants. The northwest Missouri one is also sponsored and funded by Mosaic Life Care.
AHEC provides education to desiring health care providers, educating students on several different medical fields.
Kendrick says that the center strives to increase the number of healthcare providers, and it starts for students as early as high school.
"We start out with high school students, we offer programs to introduce them to health care careers," Kendrick says. "You know, a lot of times when students think about working in health care they just think of doctors and nurses, and really our mission is to expose them to all of the health care careers that there are, because there are so many."
Kendrick says the center specializes in many different forms of health care education, but there are still some big needs in northwest Missouri, especially in the midst of a global pandemic.
"Some of the primary needs are nursing, it's just always going to be, especially given the current environment with the pandemic, we absolutely need nurses," Kendrick explains. "We need primary care doctors, especially to serve in our rural communities, and then respiratory therapy is a great need."
Kendrick says with respiratory therapy being such a big need, AHEC is excited to see Missouri Western State University opening up a respiratory therapy program to help feel that need in the area.
You can find out more information about the Area Health Education Center on their website HERE.